So We're Champions Now, Huh?
by PrinceOfLife
Summary: A collab with Matador Matty, The children of the Cul-De-Sac are pulled into an unfamiliar world by a group of gods and made their champions, problem being the kids are divided amongst the pantheons and betrayal runs about in this torn world


So Now We're Champions, Huh?

by PrinceOfLife and Matador Matty

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Ed Edd 'n Eddy is property of Danny Antonucci and AKA Cartoon. Magic: the Gathering belongs to Wizards of the Coast.

"Eddy, this has the potential to go awry in SO many ways!" a nerdy boy said to his friend, looking like he were on the verge of tearing his hair out.

"Relax sock-head, I've thought this one through." his friend said with a smug smile.

"I'm not worried!" the third boy in the group said, a doofy grin on his face.

"That's because you lack common sense, Ed." The nerd adjusted his black beanie, straightened his collar, and gulped.

The three boys, named Ed, Edd, and Eddy, were sitting in Eddy's bedroom, looking over a large blueprint Eddy had drafted in a spark of inspiration.

"But Eddy, this is all wrong!" exclaimed Edd. "This, this what did you call it again..?"

"It's an automatic jawbreaker maker!" Eddy said, rubbing his hands together. "I figured, since everyone in the cul-de-sac loves jawbreakers as much as us, we can make a bundle off of this!"

"But I believe that some of the components in this machine are unnecessary! For example, why do we need to produce a fire that can be as high as six hundred degrees?!" Edd exclaimed, pointing to the overly large flame at the base of a large cauldron.

"Well, I figured that the flame would need to be pretty hot to make the sugar crystallize," Eddy said with a small shrug. "Sides, Ed and I found some parts from an industrial oven in the junkyard, thought your mechanical genius could work with 'em."

Edd groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Eddy, I think we should do the research before we go gung-ho into this. Even if such a hot fire was necessary, I highly doubt that _this_ is how one creates jawbreakers."

"But we do need sugar, right?" Ed asked, cocking his head. "That's how I decay my teeth!"

"Yes, Ed, I'm fairly sure they actually do need sugar," Edd said with a sigh. "You know we can probably just look up online the machines and ingredients needed to make jawbreakers, Eddy."

"Yeah, but then we would be getting into all kinds of trouble if the machine is copyrighted or something," Eddy said. "Not to mention we've had enough jawbreakers in our lifetime to guess how they're made."

"Oh! Pick me, pick me!" Ed interjected, waving one jaundiced hand in the air. "I know how, guys!"

"Eh, I need my dose of comedy for the day," Eddy said with a shrug. "Go for it, Ed."

"The process by which jawbreakers are made involves combining the first base ingredients, that being raw cane sugar, liquid sugar and water, and boiling them until they achieve the hard-crack stage at about four hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit!" Ed said. Both Edd and Eddy's jaws dropped, but Ed continued obliviously. "Then, the ingredients are transferred into a cylindrical tumbler to cool and shape the candies into their iconic round shape, with calcium citrate added in for shine and dyes for coloration." Ed concluded this impromptu lecture with his usual foolish grin. "Cool, huh, guys?"

Edd and Eddy stared mutely at Ed, jaws still slack and eyes wider than the Round Tower of Copenhagen.

Once Edd managed to get his jaw back in place, he opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds (looking remarkably like a goldfish) before speaking. "Ed, where did you _learn_ all of that?"

"I've read every piece of literature involving jawbreakers!" Ed exclaimed with a smile. "Did you know that the first jawbreakers may have been made in ancient Egypt?!"

"That's our Lumpy..." Eddy snickered. "Some days, he really surprises ya."

"Well, since we know the process and the machines we need, we can actually make this!" Edd said with a slight laugh. "For once, we actually have all the needed information for a scam!"

Some time later, the cul-de-sac where the three boys with identical names lived was bustling with activity.

"Watch this, Nazz!" a boy in a red hat and green sweater laughed, riding his bicycle up a very obviously homemade ramp.

"Careful, Kevin! Last time you tried that ramp it didn't end well!" fretted a blonde girl who was sitting on a bench next to the ramp.

"Don't sweat it, Nazz!" Kevin replied, a smug grin on his face. "I've worked out all the kinks!"

However, as he rode up the ramp, the end of it snapped off, sending him faceplanting into the dirt with a painful THUD.

"Ow, " Kevin groaned from his not-very-lofty perch.

"Do you need an ice pack again?" Nazz said as she walked over to Kevin, who was standing up and dusting himself off.

"I'm fine... at least I didn't wreck myself again," Kevin grumbled. "Just need more wood glue."

"Hello, Go-go Nazz-girl, Kevin-boy!" greeted a voice in very heavily accented English. "May Rolf partake in your merriment?"

Strolling up the street was Rolf, the cul-de-sac's resident "funny foreigner". Tall, possessed of blue hair, and native to a distant European locale he referred to only as "the Old Country", Rolf worked on his family's small farm and was an avid proponent of his motherland's odd customs and traditions. He always referred to himself in the third person, and had a strange saying or epithet for every occasion.

"Hey Rolf," Kevin said with a wave to his pal. "Got done with your chores finally?"

"Yes, Kevin-boy, Rolf has completed his daily quota and is finally released!" Rolf said in a proud voice. "In addition..." His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "Rolf has caught wind of the Ed-boys' newest scam."

Kevin sighed heavily through his nose, annoyed. The "Eds" were forever devising plots they referred to as "scams", to swindle the other members of the cul-de-sac out of their allowance so they could buy jawbreakers.

"What are they doing this time?" Nazz asked in a worried tone. Many of the scams the Eds executed ended with disturbing levels of property damage, bodily harm, or a mix of both.

"Rolf can not say what it is exactly. From his observations, they seemed to be rigging a metal drum to another machine, and were in possession of much sugar!" Rolf said with a shrug.

"Wait a sec. Did they have the barrel set up at an angle?" Kevin asked, suddenly intrigued.

"Yes, actually," Rolf said. "How did you know that?"

"Cuz it sounds," said Kevin, "like they're making a candy tumbler."

"C'mon Jimmy!" a young, redheaded girl said as she ran ahead of a pale, blonde haired boy.

"I'm coming, Sarah! " Jimmy said, excitedly following his best friend. "Where are we going?"

"I saw my brother hauling, like, twenty bags of sugar to Double D's backyard!" responded Sarah. She was Ed's brother, and was forever trying to get the amiable lunkhead into some kind of trouble for kicks. "I wanna see if what they're doing is good enough to tattle on!"

Jimmy got a devious smirk on his face. "Right behind you, girlfriend!"

However, they soon hit a roadblock in the form of the local eccentric, Jonny. Darker-skinned than most of his neighbors, in possession of a disproportionately large, bald head, and nicknamed "Two-by-Four" for his weird habit of carrying around a wooden board he had drawn a face on and christened Plank, Jonny was not a popular figure in the cul-de-sac's community. At the moment, he was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, staring down at an insect.

"Move it, slowpoke!" Sarah shouted as she barreled down the sidewalk.

"Wait!" Jonny said, putting up his hand to stop his friends. "I'm trying to let this ladybug cross!"

"Can't you just step over it?" Jimmy asked.

"Plank said to let it cross," Jonny said, holding up his wooden friend. "He has a weakness for ladybugs."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Well, just so you know, my brother and his stupid friends are going to do another scam. Jimmy and I are going to check it out."

"Oh! Really?" Jonny said with a smile. "I'll be over there in a couple of minutes, then, once me and Plank let this ladybug cross safely."

"Right..." Sarah sighed and skirted around Jonny and his ladybug, Jimmy following hot on her heels as usual.

"MARIE! Where the HECK did you put my sneakers!?" a red headed, curly headed girl shouted, making the entirety of the small trailer in which she lived rumble.

A blue-haired girl with part of her bangs covering her right eye poked her head out from behind the frame leading to their room.

"How should I know, Lee!?" she shrieked back in a voice not unlike a harpy's. "I'm not in charge of your stupid sneakers!"

"You were the last one to have them!" Lee said as she trudged up to her sister.

"No I was't!" Marie shouted. "Ask May! She's been wearing 'em since hers wore out!"

"Don't gimme any of that!" Lee body-slammed Marie into a wall, and Marie returned the favor with a sharp right hook to the head- fights were common in this household, thanks to the belligerent nature of these two and their sister May.

Said younger sister then entered the room. She had long blonde hair that went down to her waist and large buckteeth.

"Hey! Don't mess up my side of the room!" she screamed as she lunged into the dogpile of her sisters. The three continued tussling for a few more minutes, utterly trashing their room, before collapsing, exhausted.

Such was the life of the sisters Kanker. Well, that and one more thing.

As May stood up, she felt a tingle go down her spine.

"My boyfriend sense is tingling!" she shrieked in delight.

"Really!" Marie said, suddenly giddy. "Lee, quick get up! We gotta go see our boys!"

"Alright! Something to do!" Lee said, pumping a fist. "Grab the lipstick, girls!"

The making of jawbreakers was not as easy as it sounded from Ed's quick descriptor. In fact, the Eds were soon finding it tedious as they hunched over the pan in which they were crystallizing sugar.

"Uggh, I'm sweating bullets here!" Eddy said, wiping sweat from his brow. "How much hotter do we have to make this stupid fire?"

Edd, who was holding a very large candy thermometer, turned to Eddy. "Another hundred degrees before we reach hard crack stage," he said in an exhausted tone of voice. "That should take at least thirteen more minutes."

"God!" Eddy swore as he continued stirring. "Ed! Add some more fuel to the fire!"

"Okie-dokey, Eddy!" Ed hefted another few bricks of wood into the fire the boys had made. He, unlike the other two, still had a seemingly infinite stockpile of energy.

"Aw, hell no!" an angry voice said, fast approaching the Eds. They turned around, and with a collective thrill of horror, saw Kevin running towards the Eds' candymaker, with Nazz and Rolf following behind.

"Stay back, Kevin!" Edd warned. "This hot syrup is rather volatile!"

"Knew it! You idiots are trying to make jawbreakers!" Kevin shouted.

"How would you know, shovel-chin?" Eddy said snidely, handing the stirring spoon to Edd.

"My dad makes jawbreakers, dorks!" Kevin retorted. "And if you guys start selling them, that'll be a threat to my family's business!"

"Yeah, _good_!" Eddy barked back. "Your folks's lousy factory never gave us any freebies like they did for all the other kids!"

"That's because they give them to people I like!" Kevin shouted.

"Kevin, calm down," Nazz said soothingly, putting a hand on her irate friend's shoulder. "It isn't like the Eds are gonna actually profit from this, right? Your family's jawbreaker factory sells to more than just one neighborhood."

"I know that," Kevin said, "but my dad told me to always watch out for upstarts."

"Rolf would advise against a fight, Kevin-boy," interjected Rolf. "The Ed-boys mean your business no harm. This is merely one of their usual bids for pocket money. As is, opportunist Ed-boys," he added, looking towards the Eds, "could you not merely create your own Jawbreakers with this method without relying on the candy store?"

"That's the general plan," Double D stated as he stirred, pausing momentarily to wipe some sweat from his brow. "You have nothing to fear about us intruding on your family's business, Kevin."

"Ugh, fine. I still don't trust you, though," Kevin muttered. He stuck his hands in his pockets and turned away, walking away from the Eds and their project while mumbling imprecations on them.

"Don't worry about Kevin, he's just being a sourpuss," Nazz said sympathetically.

"You don't object to our scam?" Double D asked, giving Eddy back the stirring spoon.

"Well, this one seems like it won't end in a trip to the hospital for anyone as long as you're careful." Nazz shrugged. "Besides, you three have gone through enough torture. I think you're entitled to some jawbreakers by now. I'm gonna go see if I can cheer Kevin up. See ya!" With a cheerful wave, the blonde made her exit as well.

"Rolf shall bid you goodbye as well, Ed-boys," Rolf said with a wave. "Rolf must give his livestock their evening meal before retiring in front of the radio." The odd farmer boy waved as well, and walked away, humming to himself.

As the noodly farmer left, Jimmy and Sarah poked their heads over the top of the backyard fence.

"Hmm... this doesn't look all that dangerous or anything," Sarah muttered to Jimmy as they spied on her brother's candy maker.

"Yeah, I think they're actually making candy," Jimmy noticed. "They have all the equipment my mommy uses to make toffee."

"Ugh! Candy making!?" Sarah groaned. "Thats not tattleworthy at all!"

"Wanna go play with dolls then?" Jimmy suggested. "Mister Yum-Yums and Polly Poo-Poo were having a territorial dispute over the Candy Cane Forest, weren't they?"

"Oh yeah! Polly Poo-Poo said she would take matters into her own hands if other options weren't available," Sarah said with a smile as she and Jimmy trotted away.

As they ran to her and Ed's house, they passed by Jonny, who was still watching over the ladybug.

"False alarm, Jonny!" Sarah exclaimed as she ran by. "They're not doing anything cool."

"Thanks!" Jonny said as the two ran by. He looked down at the ladybug, then at his imaginary friend. "Y'know, Plank, I think the ladybug might be dead, given how it hasn't moved for twenty minutes."

"Success!" Edd exclaimed. " Hard crack temperature achieved!"

"Yahoo!" Eddy pumped a fist. "Now we can really get cookin'!"

"Ed, use those tongs to move the syrup over to the tumbler!" Edd instructed.

"Got it, Double D!" Ed grabbed a very large set of tongs made from junkyard parts.

"Look! There they are!" cried a feminine voice. "Our boyfriends!"

The Eds knew that voice, and in perfect unison they went white. It was the Kanker Sisters! Ordinarily belligerent residents of the Park 'n Flush Trailer Park, they had imprinted on the Eds as their "boyfriends" and now habitually sought them out for disturbingly brutal makeout sessions. Each Kanker had selected a particular Ed as her target.

"Oh no!" Edd shouted.

"Crap!" Eddy screamed. "The Kankers!"

"What do I do, guys!?" Ed cried out as he handled the hot candy with the tongs.

"Get it in the tumbler!" Eddy said. "And make it snappy!"

However, before he could put the syrup into the tumbler, May, Ed's particular stalker, leapt over the fence and landed right in front of Ed.

"Heya, handsome!" May said as she puckered up her lips.

"Ohhh, boy!" Ed whimpered, trying not to spill the syrup.

"May, I must respectfully ask you to stay away from Ed!" Edd pleaded. "He's handling very hot sugar! You could get serious burns or worse!"

"I'm willing to get hurt for my man!" May said as she continued her advance.

Just then, the other two Kankers hopped over the fence as well. Marie smiled in a way reminiscent of the villain of a slasher flick as she dashed at Edd with a squeal of "Hey there, hubby!"

"G-g-get back!" Edd brandished the stirring spoon, which was still hot. "I have a spoon, a-and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"C'mere, my sweet boy!" Lee said as she rushed at Eddy.

"Double D! Gimme the spoon!" Eddy exclaimed as he ran away.

As the struggle between the three continued, Edd ran by Ed, who, already unbalanced from trying to keep himself away from May and handle the candy, accidentally fell over.

"Oh, NO!" Edd screamed in terror.

The splash literally formed a tidal wave of syrup down Edd's backyard, and outside of it.

"Do you hear something?" Nazz asked as her and Kevin were sitting on Kevin's front driveway.

"Yeah... it sounds like a wave?" Kevin said as he looked down at Double D's house and saw what looked like a steaming hot wave of... sugar syrup!?

"Sweet holy crud!" Kevin spluttered. "Nazz, get inside!"

"What in the world!?" Nazz shouted as they both ran into Kevin's house and locked the front door.

Once they were both inside and looking at the wave of syrup pouring across the cul-de-sac Kevin growled to himself.

" _Told_ you it was a bad idea to trust those dorks with anything!" he snarled, knuckles white with the force of his fists clenching.

"I hope everyone else is okay..." Nazz looked worriedly out at the syrup tsunami, praying nobody was caught in it.

"Glad we could get that issue resolved, Polly Poo-Po,." Sarah said in a satisfied voice.

Jimmy and Sarah had just gotten through with a very intense court battle between two of their dolls. Now resolved, the two decided to have an afternoon snack outside.

"Hey Sarah, do you hear that?" Jimmy asked as he sipped from a sippy cup full of juice. Oddly childish of him, but then again, he was a childish boy.

"Yeah, it sounds like..." Sarah was about to answer, but she saw the hot wave of syrup rush toward them.

"Jimmy, quick!" Sarah exclaimed. "Grab the dolls and climb up the tree!"

Jimmy saw the wave and gave a horrified scream. "Jumping jiminy!"

The two children each grabbed one of the two dolls from their playtime, and frantically climbed up the oak tree in the backyard.

"Jimmy, this is candy syrup isn't it?" Sarah asked her frail friend as the base of their perch was caramelized.

"Yep... looks like it."

Sarah groaned. "I knew it." She inhaled as much air as possible...

"EEEDDDD! YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLEEE!"

The deafening screech paused the Eds' and Kankers' squabble.

"Oh no! Baby sister has seen the syrup wave!" Ed wailed. "Trouble! Bad! Big!"

"Aw, COME THE HELL ON!" swore Eddy. "As if today wasn't bad enough!"

The Kankers all looked at one and other.

"We better bail," Marie pointed out. "The other kids won't be happy about this."

"Agreed." The other two sisters nodded. The trioed scourge of Peach Creek hopped the fence and ran towards the trailer park, just as Rolf came rushing down.

"Wilfred! Wilfred, where are you?!" Rolf shouted as he wandered the candy coated cul-de-sac. His beloved pig had ran off after the wave and Rolf was looking for him.

"Ooooh, Rolf shall _punish_ the Ed boys for this atrocity!" the farmer boy shouted to the wind.

The Eds, having heard this, all gulped in unison.

"I'm gonna hole up in my room," Eddy said, before rushing back to his house.

"Can I spend the night with you, Double D?" Ed asked fearfully. "Sarah might use me for boxing practice again!"

"Of course, Ed," said Edd, "but that means a shower, as you well know."

Ed sighed. "Okay, Double D. I concede." The two of them made their way inside, the candy tumbler abandoned for now, to be retried on a day when the Kankers weren't abroad.

"Okay, Ed!" Edd called out to his friend. "The Ed-Wash is prepped and ready!"

When they had gotten into the house, Double D had asked how long it had been since Ed had last bathed. Ed's response was to smile and say, "Three months ago today!"

After coming out from a dead faint and realizing that Ed would need a heavy-duty washing to be up to even the minimum standards of cleanliness, Double D quickly pieced together an Ed-Wash, based off of the time he and Eddy had tried to make Ed popular.

"Okay, Double D!" Ed saluted, then walked into Edd's contraption wrapped in a towel as per Edd's instructions.

The Ed-Wash was akin to a jury-rigged car wash. It was made up of a conveyor belt and a rack with soapy brushes attached to ropes, a shower head, and a fan.

As Ed got on the conveyor belt, Double D started up the machine. Ed was sent moving down the belt, towards the various cleaning implements.

First was the scrubbing station. As Ed approached the brushes, Double D grabbed the ropes and started pulling them back and forth. When the brushes made contact with Ed, thick layers of soapy suds started to rub off on Ed's body, making Ed laugh like a hooligan.

"The bubbles tickle, Double D!" He laughed out loud.

"Well, we need an _unbelievable_ amount of soap to get you clean, Ed," Edd explained patiently. He was no stranger to his friend's simplistic observations.

After Ed was completely covered in suds, Edd got the conveyor moving again. At the rinsing station, the shower head shot out hot water, rinsing off the suds and making Ed squeak in pain.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" Ed shouted.

"Don't worry, Ed," reassured Edd, "we're just about done."

Finally came the drying station. Double D pushed the "on" button on the modified fan, and a high powered blast of air shot out and flash dried Ed.

"And cleaning complete!" Edd said happily. He powered the item down, and led Ed to his room, where he presented the tall lunkhead with a fresh change of clothes.

However, as Ed got dressed, he noticed an unfamiliar item in Edd's closet. Bending down, he picked it up, and his eyes widened. "Double D, I didn't know you collect trading cards!"

Double D looked at the box that Ed was holding. "Why, yes I do! My preferred game is Magic: the Gathering."

Indeed, it was a box that held Magic: the Gathering cards. It was made of blue faux leather and felt, and had a design of a water drop on the front flap that protected Edd's precious cards from damage. It even had a label reading "DECK" on it - Edd, being a neat freak, habitually labeled everything he owned. The sock-hatted boy took the box from Ed and opened the flap, revealing his deck. "I recently convinced my parents to purchase several booster packs from the latest set, Kaladesh, but I haven't met anyone else who plays!"

"Oh! Oh! I do, Double D!" Ed said, dancing around happily, "I've even played in some tournaments!"

"Really! Ed, I wouldn't have thought that you would like strategy games," Edd said in mild suprise.

"I love Magic!" Ed said happily. "Are you excited for Amonkhet!?"

"I am indeed!" the sock-headed boy said with a smile. "Hah, it's quite exhiliarating to meet another fan!"

The two proceeded to jabber about Magic excitedly through the night, the day's earlier worries forgotten.

Several hours had passed since what would later be known as "The Syrup Tsunami of

2017", and all of the cul-de-sac's children were snoozing in their beds. Unbeknownst to the sleeping children, though, something was happening.

Slowly, steadily, twelve strange, inhuman beings drifted into the cul-de-sac, approaching the homes of the kids who dwelt there.

Two figures approached Edd's house, where he and Ed dozed- one an image of burning fire, one a cloud of thunder and lightning.

Three went to the trailer park- one of blinding light, one of vines and thorns, and one of clear, solid ice.

Two went into Ed's own house- one made of water and one a cloud of pestilence, visting Sarah and Jimmy.

Others dispersed around the cul-de sac as well. One, a golem of living stone, gazed silently at Rolf, who had fallen asleep on a bale of hay in his barn.

A being that could only be described as timeless scooped Nazz into its arms.

Jonny, who had fallen asleep in his tree house, was whisked away by a cloud of sand, Plank in his grip.

Kevin was sucked into a vortex of wind. When it dispersed, he was gone.

Eddy was visited by a man-shaped figure made of pure shadows.

Within the hour, all of the kids of the cul-de-sac were gone. Taken to somewhere else.

"Ooooh," Double D groaned, rubbing his head as he woke up. "Why do I have such a splitting headache...?"

As he woke up, he felt his bed... actually, no. Not his bed, but cold stone.

"What in the-?" Edd puzzled as he looked down. His bed had been replaced by a white stone floor, and rather than his pajamas, he was in his usual day wear, complete with hat. Quickly looking around, Edd could see that he was in... What looked like the throne room of a palace!

The large room was illuminated by torches that had orbs of pure light suspended within them; in front of Edd, a large table was set before three large thrones with plush backing.

"I'm dreaming...! I have to be!" Edd muttered to himself.

"Oooh!" Edd heard a dopey, excited-sounding voice say from behind him. "I must've died and ended up in Valhalla!"

Edd turned to see Ed gazing around the throne room in awe, his eyes aglow with wonder.

"Ed?" Double D called. "Is that you?"

Ed turned to look at Double D. "Hiya, Double D!" he said with a happy wave. "I have good news and bad news," he started. "Bad news: We're dead. Good news: We died honorable deaths and ended up in the halls of the gods!"

"Ed, if we're dead, we would have been asleep," Edd pointed out. "How would that be considered honorable?"

Ed suddenly paled. "Oh no! Then we must be in Helheim!" the larger boy exclaimed in horror. "I pray to Odin that Hel is merciful on this day!"

Double D rolled his eyes. "Calm down, Ed," he said, "I'm sure we're not in the afterlife."

"Boyfriend!" the two boys heard a young girl's voice call out behind them. They both turned, and with fright saw none other than May Kanker running at them.

"WE _ARE_ IN HELHEIM!" Ed and Edd shrieked, making a break for it. They split up, Ed running to the left and Edd to the right. Fortunately, May was only interested in Ed, her chosen target out of the Eds, and so she veered to the left, allowing Edd to escape.

As May made her lunge at Ed, however, an explosion of red, yellow, and golden light erupted from the three thrones at the back of the room.

On the thrones themselves, three beings suddenly appeared- one a man with sculpted features and deer antlers sprouting from his forehead, the second a man with a bird's beak and wings, and the final one a woman with long, golden locks of hair that came all the way down to her feet... in fact, her skin was golden as well, like she was a living metal statue. All three were clad in soft-looking robes in the three colors of light that they had appeared in bursts of.

"These are the champions that you two assured me of?" the golden woman said, cocking an eyebrow. She crossed her arms and drummed her fingers on her elbows. "They are but children."

"We are well aware, Luhmas," the birdman assured. "But from what we could find, they have the highest sensitivity to mana in their world." He crossed his arms as well. "Besides, _Ferrum_ is the one who suggested using outsiders as champions."

"You agreed to it, Brontos!" the horned man growled. "Mind your tongue, unless you wish to be relieved of it."

All three of the kids were stopped dead in their tracks, eyes bulging out of their skulls.

"None of them are Odin..." Ed mutttered to Edd.

"I can see that, Ed," Edd muttered in reply.

"Guys?" May asked, trembling. "Wh-what's going on?"

The three regal beings turned their attention towards the three kids, suddenly remembering that they were right in front of them.

"Pardon our squabble," apologized the horned man. "We did not mean to ignore you. Allow me to introduce us. I am Ferrum, the Horned God of Flame and Passions. These are two of my associates- Brontos, the Winged God of Thunder and Inspiration, and Luhmas, the Golden God of Light and Love."

"Gods?" Ed said cocking his head. "Sorry, but... you don't look like Odin or Höðr or anyone."

"The reason for that is because the pantheons of your world have no hold here," Brontos explained. "We are the Eastern Pantheon of Otopais!"

"I'm dearly sorry, but could we skip to the part as to why we are here?" Edd said, interrupting his friend and the god.

"That would be nice." May agreed.

"We were just about to come to that, incidentally," said Luhmas. "Ferrum, would you care to start?"

"Y-yes." Ferrum coughed slightly. "We called you here for assistance."

"Assistance?" Edd asked. "Why would you need our assistance?"

"Something has happened in our world," Brontos explained. "Let us show you." The eagle god swept his hand over the table, and immediately a globe appeared over the table, showing four major landmasses in the middle of a vast ocean, surrounded by smaller landmasses.

"This was how our world looked a mere year ago," Brontos explained. "And this is how it looks now."

He swept his hand again, and the globe changed dramatically. Several of the smaller islands were gone, and huge blast marks punched the surface of the larger ones. Where there were once jungles now sat barren land. Where there were cities, only vast, crumbling ruins remained.

"My word..." Edd put a hand to his heart, staring bug-eyed at the sheer level of destruction.

"Oh no!" Ed gasped.

"What happened?!" May exclaimed

"There was a..." Luhmas paused, trying to look for words to describe the situation. "A... struggle."

"That "struggle" being a war with another god," Brontos said grimly. "They tried to kill all of creation so they could remake it in their image."

"We maged to defeat them," Ferrum sighed, "but you can see the damage done."

"But why do you need us?" Edd asked again.

"In the old days, we would choose champions from our own world," Ferrum said. "We would choose them based on a special energy they were able to manipulate, called mana."

"We would ordinarily choose ones with the greatest mana sensitivity to be our champions," Luhmas said with a frown. "However, because of our battle with the other God, our previous champions all perished."

"Thus did we turn to your world, which is near ours," concluded Brontos, "and selected you, as well as nine others familiar to you, as our champions - three for each of the Pantheons of this world."

"So we were chosen to help you repair the world, or something of the sort...?" Edd questioned.

"In a nutshell, yes," Ferrum confirmed with a nod. "We want to focus on rebuilding cities and the populace."

"But, you need something before we can start you off," Luhmas said. The Golden God turned to the other two. "Are you ready?"

The other two nodded. All three held one hand over the other, and then slowly lifted them up, revealing a deck of cards in each of the gods' right hands.

"These cards are portions of our power, given form," Brontos explained.

"To use them, you call out the name of the spell inscribed on the card," Luhmas instructed.

"But be warned," cautioned Ferrum, "you can only use each card as long as you can muster up enough mana for it." He levitated his deck to Ed.

"Be careful," Brontos warned as he sent his to Edd.

"Trust us, you will need them," Luhmas said, giving her deck to May.

"Cool!" Ed said in a giddy voice. "We're like wizards!"

"Of the Coast, perhaps?" Edd said dryly, noting that his deck had a very familiar brown backing.

"Also, the cards won't work unless you're within our world," Ferrum added.

"Awww," said Ed, drooping his head sadly.

"You will also need these," Luhmas said as she held out her hand. A flash of light went up around May, and when it dispersed a golden cape and hood were wrapped around her shoulders.

"These will signify your roles as our champions," the Golden God explained.

Identical flashes lit up around Ed and Edd, leaving them with red and yellow capes, respectively.

"Cool!" Ed flipped his hood up, then down, then up again, chuckling.

"I must admit, these do look quite nice!" Edd said with a smile. He adjusted the clasp of his cape so that it fit better on him.

"Fare thee well, children," said Brontos, saluting the trio. "We will have need of you soon..."

With a wave of the hand, the kids disappeared in swirls of light. Now that the gods were alone, Luhmas turned to the other two.

"Do you think this will work?" she asked, her voice concerned.

"It has to!" Ferrum reassured.

"It will," Brontos said in a steady tone.

"Rolf is still in disbelief," Rolf said, pulling at the collar of his shirt. "If you do not mind Rolf saying, Terrakyan."

Rolf, Lee, and Sarah werein the middle of an open air courtyard. In front of them their three gods stood.

"I don't understand why," Terrakyan started. He resembled a ten foot tall man, with smooth grey skin. He was also built like a bull. "We explained our ordeal to you."

"Yeah... But I'm not part of some religion like my brother, so this is all weird to me in so many ways," Sarah said, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask," said the god in front of Sarah. A tall, foreboding presence compared to the other gods, Gallows had requested that the humans call him a male today, though Sarah had confused him for a woman at first, given his soft, effeminate voice and how his entire frame was cloaked in a dark hood and cowl.

"Well first of all where are my sisters?" Lee asked.

Gallows coughed a bit. "They're with another of the panthea."

"Have all of our friends been chosen?" Sarah asked, her eyebrow raised

"I believe so," said Floron. Floron was the third god of the pantheon the trio of young humans faced. She had eyes that glowed dark green, and skin similar to tree bark. "Though I suggest you keep it a secret that you all were also chosen."

Rolf looked a bit confused. "Why should we do that?" he asked.

Terrakyan bit his lip slightly. "We have reasons to beleive that one or more of the panthea may have been allied to the Nameless."

"She's the one who caused the apocalypse here, right?" Lee asked.

"They," Gallow corrected. "Not she. The Nameless has no gender."

"What made them attack this world?" Rolf piped in.

"That is a good question," Floron said, holding a hand to her head. "While their existence was known, we assume they were jealous that we had more followers."

"Seems a little petty," Sarah whispered to Rolf and Lee.

"Is there anything else?" Terrakyan asked.

"Yes." Rolf crossed his arms and looked Terrakyan square in the eye. "What goals do you hope for us to accomplish?"

His response was blunt: "Defeat the Nameless in combat as our champions."

Everyone spluttered in shock and horror. "You want us to kill A _GOD_!?" Lee exclaimed, brushing her curly tangle of red hair out of her eyes to gape up at the trio of gods. "No offense, but isn't that a _little_ out of our league?!"

"We are aware you need training," Gallows said reassuringly. "Also, we have our own offerings to give."

Gallows pressed his hands together and then separated them, revealing a deck of cards with brown backs, which floated into Sarah's hands.

"These cards will allow you to use spells that are attributed to us," Gallows explained.

Sarah picked up the first card on the top of the deck, and turned it face-up. "Swarm of Bloodflies?" she read, incredulous.

Immediately as the words left her mouth, a cloud of fat, ugly flies whirled into life from the image on the card and began swarming around Sarah.

"AIEE!" Sarah shrieked, backing away in a panic. "Wh-What are these things!? Don't let them hurt me!"

"Quite the contrary, little one," Gallows explained. "You can control these insects!"

"Really?" Sarah focused hard on the bloodflies, and soon they all hovered still in front of her. "Hmmm..." Sarah then thought of the bloodflies taking a shape of a dog, and the swarm of insects immediately obeyed, taking the shape of a Dachshund.

"Oh, this is gonna be great to torture my idiot brother with," the redhead said, rubbing her hands together evilly.

"Hands off my little sister's boyfriend!" snapped Lee. She soon recieved a deck of cards of her own, these ones from Floron and most of them possessing green borders on their front faces, in contrast to Sarah's, which were predominantly black. "Huh... "

Out of curiosity, Lee picked the first card off the deck and read it. "Call of the Wild..?"

Suddenly the ground split open before Lee, and from it came forth three hulking, misshapen creatures. All were cloaked in dark green fur, and onyx tusks jutted from mouths lined with razor sharp teeth, all three turned to Lee and bowed, their front left legs out stretched and their right bowed inward.

"Whoa..." Lee's eyes lit up behind their tangle of hair. "I think I like this stuff! You!" She pointed at the monster on the left. "Get me some water, would ya? I'm parched!"

The monster on the left nodded and trotted over to a pond on the far side of the courtyard.

While the monster was doing that. Terrakyan handed Rolf his deck. The borders on these cards were white, black, and green, but there were also a few golden ones.

Rolf, following the example of the girls, took the card on the top of the deck and read it out loud.

"Duneblast?"

Just as the last syllable escaped his mouth, Rolf had to duck, because from the card came a rock the size of his head! It immediately shot forward at blinding speeds, right for Terrakyan. However, before the stone could hit the god, he reared back and headbutted it, shattering the rock to smithereens.

"My deepest apologies!" Rolf said quickly. "Rolf had no idea the paper slip would do that!"

"It's alright, Rolf," Terrakyan chuckled. "You couldn't have known. It helps, too, that as you three are now, you're quite weak. The full force of Duneblast alone should be able to level armies in a literal typhoon of sand and stone, not eject a somewhat small boulder."

"Wait," Sarah said, holding up a hand. "How do we get stonger?"

"Mana can be compared to a physical muscle," Floron explained. "The more you use it, the stonger your skill at doing so becomes over time."

"But overuse will tire you out and leave you mentally and emotionally fatigued," cautioned Gallows, holding up a long, skeletal finger. "Ware of such coming to pass, our young champions, for in a battle it could mean your doom."

All three humans gulped slightly.

"We'll need to send you back to your world for the moment, but not before one more gift on our part," Terrakyan said. He held out his hand, and a flash of orange light went up around Rolf. When it subsided, an orange, hooded cloak rested on his shoulders.

"Not bad!" the farm boy said, examining the cloak. "Reminds Rolf of the garb elders in the Old Country would wear!"

A green light went up around Lee, and a purple one around Sarah, leaving them with green and purple cloaks respectively.

"Mmm, I like pink more but this'll do," Sarah mumbled, flipping the hood up.

"Speak for yourself! My horoscope says I should add more earthy colors to my clothes!" Lee said appreciatively.

Gallows nodded. "Be wary, our champions. You do not know what could happen to you, and even your Earth might not be safe."

All three of the kids who had, just a day ago, been embroiled in events no less dangerous than a scam gone awry, nodded warily, and then disappeared in a ball of light.

Terrakyan sighed when he was sure they were out of earshot, and used three bolts of bright blue countermagic to dispel Lee's summoned beasts. "I do hate lying to children," he said dolefully.

"It's all we can do." Floron reminded him. "If they knew the truth..."

"Then we would be the ones they were trying to kill," Gallows said, voice grim.

"Oooh, what in the actual hell..." Eddy muttered to himself.

He was in the middle of a small parlor, sitting in one of a number of comfortable armchairs. However, what distressed him were the other five... Well, two were people. The other three, he was not entirely sure on.

To his left was the one person in the world who could not piss him off any more: Kevin! From the looks of it, the cyclist wasn't happy to see him either, his arms crossed and his expression a suspicious glower. On Eddy's right was Marie Kanker, and she was just as perturbed as the guys. Not a pleasant combination by anyone's call, but Eddy supposed it could have been worse: it could have been _Lee_ instead of Marie.

The other three occupants of the room, however...

"We understand this all might be a little... Odd for you," Aeolos said, his voice trying to be compassionate. Aeolos was a wispy looking man. Wispy seemed like a good way to describe him, yeah... his entire form was constantly shifting around, as if the breeze itself disturbed his corporeal existence.

"Odd!?" Kevin exclaimed. "You just told us we were selected to be some 'magical champions' or something?! That is literally the _understatement_ of the freaking year!"

"Do not speak so roughly to my husband!" Sombrax growled. He was a lanky man whose body was made out of pitch black shadows. He didn't really have a recognizable face, but his body shifted to display his current mood. At the moment, it was a roiling mass of darkness that odd spikes jutted out of, like some evil sea urchin. "If you do, we will find another champion to replace your disrepectful slander."

"Calm down, dear," Aeolos said, patting what passed for Sombrax's hand. "He is merely confused."

Eddy coughed slightly. "Umm, if you don't mind me asking," he began, "where are we?"

"Right now, you are in our palace," Yukiko explained. She was an ice deity according to the other two. She looked like a woman except for having pure white skin, hair and eyes. Not "Caucasian", mind you- _literally_ white, like snow or milk.

"Our palace is at the top of the northernmost mountain in this world," Aeolos explained. "Thankfully, it was not affected by the apocalypse."

Marie bit her finger slightly. "Sorry, but this is weirding me out big-time!" she said, shaking her head. "I mean, an hour ago I was asleep in my bed, and now I'm in some other world?!"

"Yeah, how did you even get us here?" Eddy asked.

"Well, to put it simply, we transported you from your world to ours with magic," Sombrax said curtly.

"Yeah, but how?" Kevin pressed.

"If you must know," the god of darkness groused, "we've been spying on you all for the past few months to make sure that you were the right choice to be our champions."

"You've been spying on us!?" Eddy yelped. "Have you been doing that all the time, or-?"

"Yes," Sombrax said with a huff. "And you should be very ashamed of what you do in your room in the mornings, Eddy."

Eddy felt a bead of cold sweat run down his forehead.

"When we decided you would be the most proficent choices, we transported you here by manipulating the aether," Yukiko explained. "And before you ask, aether is pure magic, which comprises space in between planes of existence."

"Are there other dimensions other than this one and ours, then?" Marie asked out of curiosity.

"Millions," Yukiko said, holding out her hands wide. "There are even a rare few who can travel between them freely. They are called Planeswalkers."

"Planeswalkers..." Eddy had heard that phrase before, but where? He got a sudden, strange flashback to Ed's trading card collection, and silently wondered what it meant.

"Must say," Sombrax said snidely, "I expected you to be more... befitting of champions."

"Hey dude, we're only thirteen!" Eddy complained. "And you ain't even _seen_ what we can do yet!"

Suddenly Sombrax's form began to undulate, almost like he was laughing. "Well! Let's test that then."

Sombrax's hand sprouted fingers, and he gave them a sharp snap.

Suddenly all three of the kids found them selves in a small gladiatorial arena, the three gods sitting in theater boxes above them.

"Way to go, Dorky!" Kevin growled at Eddy, clenching his fists. "Now we're about to get our butts kicked, and it's your fault!"

"Catch!" came the voice of Aeolos from above them, and three small boxes fell from the sky, one landing in each youth's hand. Eddy immediately opened his, hoping it contained something useful, and his face fell when he saw that all there were inside were trading cards. "What the- cards!?" he growled up at the gods. "These are useless!"

Sombrax once again laughed. "That mood will soon change." He turned to his husband. "Dear, would you please summon something up for our champions to fight?"

Aeolos nodded and held out his hand. Where he was pointing, a ring formed, and from it came a large, white-feathered mass.

The mass slowly began to unravel, and soon the three realised that the feathers were attached to a twelve foot long serpent with three sets of wings. It had iridescent scales in every color from red to blue, and a mouth filled with so many teeth, it couldn't close its mouth at all, like some kind of giant viper fish!

Kevin turned to Eddy. "I hate you," he said flatly.

Marie gulped and pulled out one of the cards from her deck, nervously watching the summoned serpent undulate menacingly.

"Glacial Ray?" she read out loud, staring incredulously at the red-bordered card.

The card began to glow pure white, and then began to elongate and grow.

When it was done, the card had transformed into a long polearm with a curved blade at the top, the entire thing completely made of ice. The blade was glowing with soft white light, and Marie grasped it unsurely, surprised that the ice didn't feel cold in her hand. "Well, it's something..."

Both boys gulped in unison and also pulled out cards from their decks.

"Sh-Shade's Form?" Eddy said. As he did, a cloak of shadows covered him, temporarily blinding him. When he regained his sight, he found his body wreathed from the waist down in swirling dark energy.

"Oh, now what?" Eddy said, exasperated.

"Let's hope I get something good." Kevin muttered, looking at his card. "Lightning Greaves?"

The card turned into light, and then split in half and shot down to his knees. Kevin yelped and jumped slightly, but he was in no danger: the light merely reformed around his lower legs, and then with a flash, two elegantly carved greaves made of golden metal now clung to his legs.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "How do I-?" He took a slight step forward, and then found himself running at blinding speeds!

"Holy crap!" Kevin shouted as he ran, the wind speed blowing his hat off and allowing his red hair to blow free. Despite the fear he felt, he had to admit this was pretty awesome!

"Hey, use that speed to do something!" Marie said as she readied a battle stance, holding the spear in both hands and pointing the blade towards the snake thing.

"Oh, right," Kevin said. He stopped and turned around, charging full-speed-ahead at the serpent. Once he was in striking range he jumped up and planted a kick on the serpent's head.

"Hahaha, suck it!" Kevin snarked at the snake.

The snake, obviously angered at the attack opened its mouth wide, and from it came a blast of high pressured air. Kevin was hit by this blast, sending him flying to the walls of the arena.

"Crap!" Marie muttered. "Tagging in", so to speak, she ran at the serpent and slashed at it with her glaive. As the polearm cut a shallow slash into the monster, from the area of contact, frost began running across the serpent's body. It squealed in pain and lunged at Marie, but even without a pair of Lightning Greaves, she was too agile for it! She rolled out of the way, and slashed at the serpent again, and this time the cut was much longer and deeper, resulting in more frost.

"Wanna pitch in!?" Marie shouted at Eddy

"I don't know what I can do!" Eddy snapped back. He sized up the snake, looking nervous, but decided it was now or never. He took a step forward...

The snake lunged! Eddy let loose a high-pitched shriek of terror as the snake bolted straight for him! He squeezed his eyes shut, anticipating his end...

...and save for a weird swishing sensation, he felt no impact. The terrified boy opened his eyes and turned around to see that the snake had banged against the wall of the arena, and was looking dazed.

It had phased right throught him!

"Oh, so that's what this does," he said in a slightly shaky voice, looking down at his spectral lower half.

Marie paused and tapped her chin in thought as she watched the snake pass through her sister's boyfriend. Maybe they could use this...

An idea popped into her head.

"Use your power to find its heart!" Marie shouted, leveling the glaive. "Then point it out to me!"

"You want me to look inside the murder snake!?" Eddy cried as the snake began to gather itself. Unfortunately for Eddy, the snake made the decision for him- its predatorial persistence had made it mark the poor scammer as its prey, and soon the creature was chasing Eddy around.

Sombrax laughed as he watched the trio fight, Kevin and Marie attacking while Eddy was effectively bait. "It's been a while since we've had such quality entertainment."

Aeolos cocked his head at Yukiko. "We aren't going to let the Coatl kill them, are we?"

"Certainly not," Yukiko scoffed. "We need them alive and healthy."

Luckily for them, their conversation went unheard.

"Have you gotten a bead on its heart yet, Dorky!?" Kevin growled, kicking off from the Coatl's head.

"Sorrrrrrrry! I've been fleeing in terror!" Eddy shouted back at Kevin.

"Will you two shut the heck up!?" Marie scolded her teamates.

Eddy groaned. With a churn of revulsion in his stomach, he turned around and stuck his head into the serpent's middle just as it flew over him. It was probably the grossest sight Eddy had ever seen, the red rivers of muscle and organs flowing past him- and that was saying something, considering _Ed_ was one of his best friends- but then he saw it. The beast's heart!

Eddy pulled his head out and resisted the urge to vomit. "Its at the two-thirds point!" he shouted as he pointed to the place he thought the heart was located.

"Gotchya!" Marie said as she lunged forward. The serpent snapped at her but she just managed to get out of the way of it fangs and stabbed true at its heart. The Coatl's eyes went as wide as dinner plates for a single second, and almost in slow-motion, it keeled forward, stone dead. Marie's ice glaive vanished, as did Eddy's Spectral Form and Kevin's Lightning Greaves.

Sombrax stared in silence as Aeolos started clapping and whooping in glee.

"Well done, our champions," Yukiko said with a gentle smile.

Kevin gripped his knees, panting loudly. "Man, I don't get this tired doing cross country... What gives!?"

"The mana used when performing magic takes a toll on physical stamina as well," Aeolos said as he floated down on a gust of wind. He was still clapping appreciatively, a warm smile on his face. "Well done, all three of you. A Coatl is not an easy creature to defeat."

Marie raised her. eyebrow. Coatl? Where had she head that before?

"For now, allow us to give you your marks as our champions!" Aeolos said as he held out his hand.

A teal pillar of light whipped to life around Kevin. When it dissipated, a teal hooded cloak was clasped around his shoulders.

"Heh," Kevin said, satisfied. "Not bad."

Sombrax and Yukiko did the same for Eddy and Marie, leaving a black and a white cloak respectively.

"Snazzy," Marie said appreciatively, adjusting the cloak for her shoulder's breadth. "Feels like I'm going for a LARP, though."

"Just wondering," Eddy said as he examined the cloak, "but are these magical at all?"

"Minor defense enchantments," Sombrax explained. "Should be able to keep your body safe in a sandstorm or the like."

"Return home now and rest," Yukiko said with a bow. "We shall send summons for you soon."

All three of the kids disappeared in a ball of light, leaving only the gods.

Sombrax groaned loudly after they were gone. "Leave it to _us_ to get the three most aggresive champions."

"They'll have to learn to get along," Aeolos said, hugging his shoulders and sighing wearily. "There might be many people with mana on their plane, but they fit what we need the most."

Yukiko stared down at the spot where the three had vanished. "They will find a way to work." she said in a voice that could freeze fire. "They will."

Nazz rubbed her head. All hopes of this being a dream had vanished when the guy in the cloak turned into a literal pile of sand to look at her.

"So you all understand what we are asking, correct?" Typhon said. Typhon looked about Nazz and Jonny's age, but his skin was blue and his eyes and teeth were the same color as pearls. "Its all quite simple really."

Nothing about this was remotely simple to Nazz, Jimmy, and Jonny. All three of them were sitting it what seemed like the top floor of a giant, opulent pagoda- really giant, something like a hundred stories high- and standing before them were apparently three gods from another world, the world the trio were currently in.

"You call being teleported to another world in our sleep simple?" Nazz asked derisively.

"Not at the moment," Ramil, the sand god apparently, said. He was wearing a tan cloak that covered his entire body, but as he had shown earlier, he was actually a humanoid made of many, many grains of living sand.

"Why?" Jimmy asked, his knees pulled up to his chest.

"Yeah... no offense, but me and Plank would rather be back at our place right now," Jonny said, holding his wooden pal close.

"Well, we still have to explain what we want you to do," Reloxo said. He identified as the western pantheon's time god. He had white-gold skin that looked like metal, and to be honest, the kids were begining to think he was metal, given the slight clicking sounds that happened whenever he moved.

"And why is that?" Nazz asked.

"Well, there's the situation with being champions, which we explained earlier," Typhon said, standing up. "But we also want you to help keep our races' history alive."

"Your race?" Nazz said, her eyebrow arching "Like other gods?"

"Oh, nonono." Ramil shook his hands. "We mean the races we created."

"The what?!" Jimmy asked, slightly alarmed. "D-does that mean we have to run races? I'm not good in gym class outside of gymnastics..."

"No, little one," Reloxo said patiently. "We refer merely to the sapient species of this world."

"Like... elves and stuff?" Nazz guessed, remembering some fantasy novels she had on her bookshelf.

"What are elves?" Ramil said, cocking his head, a small amount of sant pouring out of his cloak.

"Never mind." Nazz shook her head. "But really, what do you mean by keeping them alive?"

"Well, the apocalypse affected major population centers for each race." Rolexo explained. "As such, our races are near the brink, with only about two thousand of each still alive."

"That's so sad..." Jonny cast his eyes down. "Wh.. what can we do to help them? And that _had_ to have affected this place's natural life..."

"Well, for one, you can help them rebuild their civilizations," Typhon suggested. "And perhaps help them find a place to rebuild in the first place."

"Most of the climates they called home have been obliterated." Rolexo added.

Nazz still thought this was all really surreal, but she nodded quietly, unwilling to risk the anger of those marked as gods.

"Our races are mainly in this area here," Ramil said as he pulled out a map from his cloak and flattened it out on the table in front of them. On it was the entire landmass of Otopais. Ramil circled a seaside area to the west with sand. "That's where you should start."

Jimmy committed the map to memory. "I see it's coastal," he said, becoming less timid and more serious. "Does that mean we'll have to deal with fishing economy?"

"Yes," Typhon said. "My race, the amphibian Kappa, are trying to start over near the water."

"Our races are close behind." Reloxo added. "I made the Aeons, and Ramil made the Lamia."

The kids had heard of Kappa and Lamia, but never Aeons. They sure sounded weird. "But what's with these cards?" Jonny asked, holding up the deck of paper cards he had been given by Ramil, as Jimmy had been by Typhon and Nazz by Reloxo. "Plank doesn't like them!"

"You better get used to them," Typhon said with a shrug. "They're how you'll be fighting in this world."

"Fight?" Jimmy asked over a sudden bout of chattering teeth, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. Combat was really more Sarah's forte.

"Fight," Reloxo said decisively. "Like it or not, this is a changed world, a hostile world, and many monsters lurk. You will have to learn battle magic to survive."

"Yeesh," Nazz muttered to herself. "This magic thing seems like it might be better for some other people I know." Nazz's mind going to Ed.

"Don't worry, you'll eventually get acclimated to using magic." Reloxo said calmly.

"Do be careful, however," sighed Typhon. "Not even I am able to count the number of times champions have perished from overexterting themselves."

"Perished!?" Jimmy gulped audibly.

"Don't worry!" Ramil hastened to reassure, noting the youth's distress. "It's mostly painless!"

Jimmy's eyes went wide, tears beginning to brim in them. Nazz (much better at emotional comfort than Ramil) put a hand on Jimmy's shoulder to calm him down. "Is that all?" she asked calmly, hoping to assuage Jimmy's fear.

"That's all," assured Ramil. "We shall test you in combat when next we meet."

"For now," said Typhon, "we have a gift for you. A marking of you three as our champions."

All three of the gods held their hands out, and around the three children a pillar of light shone. When it dissipated, Nazz had on a silver cloak, Jonny a tan one and Jimmy a blue one.

"Ooh, this fabric is soft!" Jimmy grinned and tugged on it, clearly happy with the texture.

"Not bad," Nazz said as she examined the cloak. "I don't usually wear silver but this'll work."

"Neat!" Jonny said with a smile. "I can wrap Plank up in this!"

"You do that," Ramil said with a touch of good humor. "Now, you three, fare well and rest well, and we shall give you further explanation soon, we promise."

As all three of their champions disappeared in a ball of light, the three gods all turned to one and other when they were out of sight. "So these are the ones we must put our hopes on?" Typhon said with a frown.

"They're better than nothing, and smart too," Reloxo said soothingly.

"Yes," Ramil said as he stepped over to a window and looked out over the landscape. "My only hope is that they can restore our races, and our names."

And in their beds once more, resting after their harrowing adventures, the twelve residents of Peach Creek slept.

PrinceOfLife: Welp, that's the first chapter of our newest crossover. Well, it is a crossover, trust us. We're going to use a lot of cool things from the canon Magic: The Gathering setting, thanks to my Bro and Loremaster.

Matador Matty: Yep! I've always wanted to write a really cool Magic crossover, and this seems like the ultimate opportunity! I also love epic adventure stories featuring the Ed Edd 'n Eddy cast. There's something about their personalities that meshes really well with fantastic scenarios!

PrinceOfLife: Same here bro! Next chapter will have more on the world of Otopais, and the powers of the kids! So until next time, see you guys!

Matador Matty: Bye, y'all! We love ya bunches! Please don't forget to leave a review if you liked it or had any thoughts!


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